In using electronic devices, such as computers, smart phones, PDAs, etc., a user may experience a situation in which the electronic device “hangs” or “crashes”. A hang, sometimes referred to as a “freeze”, occurs when the device ceases to respond to inputs. In the most commonly encountered scenario, the device's display becomes static and is unresponsive to any user input, e.g., clicking or movement of a mouse cursor, typing on a keyboard, or touching a touch screen, etc. Many modern operating systems provide the user with a means to terminate a hung program or device without rebooting or power cycling the device. In more severe hangs, however, the device may have to be power cycled, which is often accomplished with an on/off or reset button provided on the device. A crash, on the other hand, is a condition in which the electronic device or a program, either an application or part of the operating system, ceases to function properly, often exiting after encountering errors. This is different from a hang or freeze where the application or operating system continues to run without obvious response to input.
Often, the only way to recover from a hang or crash is to reboot or reset the device, usually by turning it off and then on again—called power cycling. Power cycling typically involves resetting or clearing any pending errors or events and then bringing the system to normal conditions or to an initial or default state in a controlled manner. Depending on the device configuration, a device may be able to automatically reset itself by means of an internal program which is triggered if a command times out. However, such a timing out does not always occur or is too lengthy, and even if pending, a user often has no way of knowing if and when the reset will happen. As such, most conventional electronic devices have a means to enable a user action for manually initiating a reset. One such common means is a reset button, the location of which is not always obvious (e.g., it may be recessed within the device housing) and may require an extra tool (e.g., paperclip or the like) to access. Alternatively, the power cycling or reset may require simultaneously or serially pressing or holding a designated combination of keys (e.g., user interface keys), the combination of which may be unknown or not readily available to a user. Other ways in which a device can be configured to be reset is by prolonged removal of the battery or batteries or by installing the batteries upside down (i.e., the positive side of the battery is connected to the positive contact in the battery receptacle, and the same for the negative). Often, these actions are neither obvious nor effortless for users, require extra electro-mechanical hardware and/or require additional device housing access points, all of which add to the cost of the device and increase the risk of electrostatic discharge (ESD) and liquid ingress issues.
Accordingly, it would be desirable and beneficial to provide means and methods of resetting or power cycling electronic devices which overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.